Four days after fresh riots rocked Bangladesh over the death of a youth leader Sharif Osman Hadi, unidentified gunmen on Monday shot another leader of the country’s violent student-led 2004 uprising in the head. Motaleb Shikder, who is one of the key members of the National Citizens Party (NCP) workers’, was shot in the head near his house in southwestern Khulna city.
“The Khulna Division head of NCP (National Citizen Party) and central coordinator of the party’s workers front, Motaleb Shikder, was shot a few minutes ago,” NCP’s joint principal coordinator Mahmuda Mitu said in a Facebook post, quoted PTI. Shikder was rushed to Khulna Medical College Hospital in a critical condition.
A local newspaper stated quoting hospital sources that Shikder was shot on the left side of his head, and he was bleeding profusely.
Bangladesh protests
A massive wave of protests swept through Bangladesh last week after a student leader of last year’s July protest, Sharif Osman Hadi, died. He was shot in the head on December 12 during a campaign, as he was also one of the candidates in the next year’s general elections.
The 32-year-old Inqilab Mancha spokesperson died while undergoing treatment in Singapore on Thursday. The interim government of Muhammad Yunus staged a nationwide mourning for Hadi’s death on Saturday and said no stone would be left unturned to track down his killers.
However, violent protesters set the offices of two big newspapers and the office of Awami League on blaze.
Who is Motaleb Shikder?
Shikder is the Khulna divisional chief of the NCP and a central organiser of NCP Sramik Shakti. His party was reportedly set to hold a divisional labour rally in Khulna in a few days, and he was working on the same.
Some miscreants opened fire targeting Mohammad Motaleb Sikder’s head at around 11:45 am near Khulna’s Gazi Medical College Hospital, The Daily Star reported citing, officer-in-charge (investigation) of Sonadanga Model Police Station.
The National Citizen Party was formed by Students Against Discrimination and the Jatiya Nagorik Committee after former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fled. Established on February 28 this year, it is Bangladesh’s first student-led political party.
Police said they have no information about the attackers and they have launched an “immediate manhunt” for their arrest.